The usual Sidney know it all bollix. Herself and her father have brought their Party into the mainstream in the last 30 years with upticks in performances in regional, National Assembly and Presidential elections. This isn't some sort of Jeremy Corbyn like take over of a mainstream party, this is helping to erode the popularity of the mainstream of French politics by the wider ballot box.

She might have had a poor debate, but she clearly has some political skills to get where herself and her Party are.

This is like the jeering at Donald Trump's cadence and communication skills by the Twitteratti. They just don't get it.

I gave you some reasons. The evidence is in the electoral success of her political party and getting to this run off once again. Herself and Mélenchon won the majority of the youth vote. I look at the facts and not feelings. I don't follow French politics, I can see the success that her party has had and can call it as it is though.

You even admit to not watching the debate but go on "reports" to fit into your narratives. I doubt you even speak French and are probably furiously translating articles from Le Monda on Google Chrome.

Where is the tangent? You admit to not watching her debate but go off on one, classic Sidney pretend knowledgeability on a subject. You've never met a topic you couldn't google to suit your agenda.

The tangent is in pretty much everything you wrote, Tim. Hot air which failed to engage with anything I wrote, with the sole exception of where you agreed with me that her performance in the debate was disastrous.

You're not even keeping up a pretence of pretend knowledgeability here.

i.e. "I didn't watch it and I don't actually understand French, but here are my takeaways on X's political competency based entirely on my wishes on how politics will go"

More feelings over facts from Sid, even after Brexit and Trump he still just doesn't get it- plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I'm really not sure what my standard of French-speaking has to do with anything, mate. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

I love the way you've admitted twice that my posts actually contain some research, by the way. Perhaps you might do some yourself before commenting in future, because it's quite clear you need a bit of work in that regard.

I also loved the way you threw in a bit of French there at the end of your post to try and make yourself look knowledgeable. It reminds me of the way @labane1917 likes to throw in a bit of Latin at the end of his posts in a similar, haughty manner. But at least it proves the grinds at the Institute clearly weren't a total waste, unless you've gone Googling...

I get it, you're a Le Pen supporter. Feelings over facts are clearly overcoming you at the moment. That's OK, denial is the first step in the grieving process. You'll come through it.

Again this is classic Sidney, you don't even deny that you can't speak French and are just going off on one based on your delusions about the world.

In a few weeks you will be giving it big 'uns moaning about the first past the post system in the U.K. (just like the US electoral college and US senate, because your team lost those) but will ignore the electoral successes of LePen's party because they didn't win the big one.

Fucksake, anyone that predicted a Le Pen victory is clueless on French politics. As a commentator said recently "a goat would beat Le Pen in a second round runoff". The FN and in particular someone with the name Le Pen will never win the presidency in France.

While she was never going to win, Le Pen's biggest mistake, especially in the last debate, was attacking Macron. In this respect she made the same mistake as Clinton, who spend too much time attacking Trump and never presented a compelling argument on her own policies.

The only interesting aspect of the French election is the defeat of all the traditional parties, the rejection of establishment parties and politics continues to be the primary driver in western democracies.